WWDC Ticket Sales: Exactly as Apple Planned it

By John Martellaro

Apr 25th, 2012 3:03 PM EDT

This is not just the Internet age. Its not even the iPhone age. It’s the age of mobility, social networks and app development. And fast decisions.

Apple knew from experience what happend last year and decided no changes were needed. The company is aware of the WWDC popularity and the jazz it brings to the developer community. Watering it down by expanding the venues, dividing it up and turning it into just another lazy week-long conference (or two) is not what Apple has in mind. The energy would be gone.

One can only conclude, from the way things went this morning, that events unfolded exactly as Apple wished.

Here’s why. Apple knows that developers are social animals, and they’re capable of all kinds of clever tools. Twitter alerts, iPhone notifications, web page monitoring and other tools can be created or used by the astute developer. Within seconds, any really sharp developer will be aware of the WWDC announcement for ticket sales, being asleep notwithstanding. Young developers, in Apple’s view, don’t mind jumping out of bed at 5:30 in the morning, grabbing an iPad and registering on their own authority. Done. What was the problem?

Some adjustment had to be made for east coast people who generally are not up very early and are also very important to Apple. The east coast has major centers for influential TV networks and newspapers, so Apple skewed the timing their way. On the other hand, the West Coast people tend to move fast, and the developer community in California can darn well fend for itself. In fact, developers all around the world, no matter the time zone, need to be in the same frame of mind. Nimble.

If you’re one of those people who needs a lot of time to make a decision, sip some coffee, read a newspaper, or you need to plead with a supervisor, or you’re not an alert, savvy, young developer accustomed to brisk action, then WWDC isn’t for you. You’re not developer material, and so Apple is sending you this message: